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By Alice McFarlane

Turkey Production

Gobble up some turkey this Thanksgiving weekend

Oct 12, 2019 | 12:00 PM

Many families will enjoy turkey at the table or in the field as part of their Thanksgiving meal over the holiday weekend.

Chances are that bird was raised on a Saskatchewan turkey farm.

There are 11 turkey producers in the province. Those farms raise 650,000 turkeys a year, which works out to 5.5 million kilograms of meat.

Cinthya Wiersma is with the Turkey Farmers of Saskatchewan. Her family also raises turkeys on their farm near Cudworth. She said there is a market for turkey year round not just at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

“For your whole bird, the bird that you buy in the store that you want to have for Thanksgiving supper is about a seven kilogram bird. That’s sort of a smaller bird, but we do have birds that are grown way bigger and sometimes you can access those birds in the market as well. They’re used for things like ground turkey and soup,” Wiersma said. “You can find pieces of turkey now in the store so you don’t just have to buy a whole turkey. You can buy turkey breasts, you can buy turkey thighs, you can buy turkey drumsticks just like a chicken.”

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Wiersma said there is a market for turkey-year round not just at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

“I think the perception is that cooking a whole turkey is so daunting, but now that we have access to turkey parts, like the breast and the thigh, then it makes it easier to have for a weeknight supper and it’s a versatile protein you can use for many different dishes,” Wiersma said.

There are many different ways to prepare turkey. Wiersma said if you’re cooking a whole turkey the majority of people are going to oven roast the bird.

“There’s people putting them inside cooking bags, some people do breast side down. I cook breast side up. It depends on how your mother showed you. But now there are so many YouTube videos on cooking all sorts of different things and turkey is no different,” Wiersma said. “There’s lots of resources for turkey recipes online too. But, definitely, I would say oven roasting is the most popular and yes some people will cook their turkey on the barbecue and some will deep fry.”

Wiersma said turkey has more flavour then chicken and retains that flavour when it’s cooked.

“It’s low in fat. It’s packed with nutrients and it’s very delicious and a healthy meal to have throughout the year. There’s also other turkey products that are available like turkey sausages. It’s definitely a nutritional powerhouse, it’s a lean protein. I think it’s a great choice for weeknight meals, to make sandwiches afterwards. Turkey cold cuts are available too. Lots of choices.”

A selection of recipes and how-to-videos for a new way of preparing the Thanksgiving turkey are available here.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF